The stockholders of the Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Company voted to "demerge" the cruise subsidiary P&O Princess Cruises Plc. from the former parent company on Friday. There's more information on this "demerger" in the press releases of the former parent's web site (http://www.p-and-o.com) and on the web site of the newly "demerged" company (http://www.poprincesscruises.com).

Since the management of the new company has been in place since its reorganization as a wholly owned subsidiary quite a while ago, I doubt that the reorganization will be much impact on the Princess Cruises product.

For those who might wish to invest in the new company (and with capacity and sales approximately doubling every four years, representing an annual growth rate of about 20%, it's a great investment!), the stock of P&O Princess Cruises Plc. will begin trading tomorrow as follows:

>> Actual shares will trade on the London Stock Exchange under the EPIC symbol POC.

>> "American Depository Receipts" (ADR's), which represent a fixed number of actual shares, will trade on the New York Stock Exchange under the American ticker symbol POC. By way of explanation, there's a trustee for the ADR's who holds the corresponding number of actual shares in trust for each outstanding ADR share so the ADR's are essentially a domestic investment. Dividends, etc., pass through the ADR trust to the holders of the ADR shares.

This information is NOT a solicitation for sale of either shares or ADR's of P&O Princess Cruises Plc. If you wish to invest, you must place your trades through a broker. As always, do your own research before investing!